That’s Queenie’s Castle, created by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. It starred Diana Dors, and ran for three series on ITV at the start of the 70s.

So it’s inevitable that the treats behind today’s door are a little left of field. Namely, the other sitcoms of Caroline Quentin.

Let’s unwrap Don’t Tell Father, the BBC sitcom that ran for one series in 1992. Written by Roy Clarke, and directed by Harold Snoad, it also starred Tony Britton and Susan Hampshire.

We’ve seen Dream Stuffing on this site before, but we didn’t note that Quentin appeared in it as Brenda.

Quentin also appears in an episode of Paul Merton In Galton & Simpsons … called The Missing Page – a remake of the Hancock’s Half Hour story, with Quentin playing the Sid James role.

]]>Sitcom Advent Calendar Door Sixteenhttp://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6753
Sun, 16 Dec 2018 11:20:25 +0000http://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6753Continue reading →]]>Pardon The Expression, but what’s behind door 16 today? Well, it’s the sitcom with Arthur Lowe that was a spin-off from Coronation Street (of all places). Made by Granada for ITV, it ran for two series and 36 episodes.

Another Lowe vehicle, this time for the BBC at the end of the seventies, Potter was written by Roy Clarke.

You’re in for a rare treat at the very start of that video.

At the start of this one too, with that lovely 90s BBC globe.

Pilgrims Rest was created by Bernard McKenna, and starred Gwen Taylor and Gary Olsen. It aired in the late summer of 1997.

After Dream On, and before Friends, Marta Kaufman and David Crane created The Powers That Be.

Instead we find within the foil wrappings Old Boy Network, which had this theme tune.

It was written by Clement & La Frenais, and as you can see, it starred Tom Conti. It ran in the 10pm slot on Sundays in the first half of 1992 on ITV.

I have a soft spot for On The Up, with Dennis Waterman and Joan Sims, so much so that I don’t want to watch it again in case it mars the nostalgia. It was written by Bob Larbey. Just the one and so forth.

Finally, there’s Operation Good Guys.

]]>Sitcom Advent Calendar Door Fourteenhttp://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6749
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 11:44:51 +0000http://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6749Continue reading →]]>Opening doors on this calendar has a habit of reminding me of sitcoms I had forgotten, not because they were no good, and not because I didn’t watch them (the opposite actually), but because my brain is small and full of Seinfeld quotes.

So it is with The Naked Truth, which I saw on The Paramount Comedy Channel. It starred Tea Leoni, and was created by Chris Thompson. It started on ABC, but moved to NBC, to sit alongside these other sitcoms.

I wish there was a clip of Nathaniel Titlark to unwrap, but alas not.

Nelson’s Column was a follow up to An Actor’s Life For Me, and saw John Gordon-Sinclair reunite with writer Paul Mayhew-Archer.

The New Statesman (not that one), aired on BBC2 in 1985, after a pilot the year before. Colin Blakely played George Vance, but was recast with Windsor Davies for the full series.

]]>Sitcom Advent Calendar Door Thirteenhttp://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6746
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 11:59:26 +0000http://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6746Continue reading →]]>Is it possible for a sitcom to exist for two long season in the US, and never be heard of ever again? It is possible for a sitcom that ran for two years on NBC as a lead in to The Golden Girls to have virtually nothing written about it anywhere?

Why yes.

Welcome to 13 East.

It doesn’t even have a Wikipedia listing.

Another weird phenomenon is a sitcom that was on all the time for a while, and then just drops out of your mind completely. So is the case with Major Dad.

Dan Quayle pops up in an episode of this, and it was shown daily on BBC1 at half eleven in the morning (those must have been school holidays or when I was off sick).

Regular visitors to this blog will know I have a soft spot for the oft-overlooked Hale & Pace, and here’s another thing that seems to have been forgotten … their Channel 4 sitcom The Management.

]]>Sitcom Advent Calendar Door Twelvehttp://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6744
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 11:41:58 +0000http://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6744Continue reading →]]>Hidden behind the little door today is not Twenty Twelve, the sitcom about the Olympics that spawned WIA, but The News At Twelve, a CITV show from 1988, about a boy who delivers a news bulletin to an imaginary audience.

Shame there’s no clippage to share.

Also within is the chocolate goodness of an Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen sitcom with Brenda Blethyn called The Labours Of Erica.

On his own site, Andrew describes the show like this:

This was the third sitcom that Richard and I worked on together – and was custom written for the brilliant Brenda Blethyn. The idea was that, as a middle aged woman, she finds a diary from her girlhood with a list of twelve things she vowed to do before she was 40. She hasn’t done any of them, and there’s only three months to go, so she ups and starts doing…

It was a nice idea, and Brenda was fabulous but somehow we never sorted out a real direction for the characters. So she did the twelve things (in twelve episodes) and that was that. Shame, really, but there were some good laughs on the way.

On the same site, he says that there was only five series of The Brittas Empire, which is some marvellous shade to throw on series six and seven written after they had killed off (kinda) the main character.

And finally, Lance At Large was written by David Nobbs and Peter Tinniswood for the BBC in 1964. Starring Lance Percival, it was quite experimental, and used locations and a different cast each week.

Denise Van Outen appeared in the first series of this, and Sarah Alexander in the second. And yes, that’s the voice of Andrew O’Connor as the computer.

Children’s TV is often overlooked as a source of sitcoms, and that’s a shame. The Kids From 47a ran for 42 episodes (42!) on ITV in the mid 1970s.

Created by Charlotte Mitchell, it was about a family of kids suddenly left without a guardian.

Another kid’s show to round the day off then, but without any lovely video goodness to chew on. Knight School was written by Mark Billingham and Peter Cocks, and had Tony Robinson on board as the script editor. Described as a mix of Grange Hill and Blackadder, it was based in the 13th Century, and starred Roger Lloyd Pack.

This series of short, silent comedies found a home on BBC2 at 10.20pm at the beginning of 1995. So beautifully produced.

Seems like the calendar is taunting me today with things I would enjoy but have never seen. Thus it continues with The Jimmy Stewart Show (Jimmy Stewart had a sitcom??).

No wonder I never saw this, as it only aired in the UK in London, in a graveyard slot, four years before I was born.

]]>Sitcom Advent Calendar Door Ninehttp://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6738
Sun, 09 Dec 2018 11:08:01 +0000http://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6738Continue reading →]]>Behind the ninth door we find the sitcom 9 To 5, which was based on the movie of the same name. Dolly Parton’s role was taken by her younger sister. Parton also produced the first season of the show, though a cover version of her own song was used for that first year. Subsequent seasons used the original.

Unusually, a few years after the show was cancelled by ABC, it was picked up again by Fox for a new syndication run, taking the total number of episodes from 33 to 118.

If you can think of a better title than I Tell You It’s Burt Reynolds, then well done you. This video is a terrible mash up thing, but you get to see the lovely Yorkshire ident, and the title sequence from The Galton & Simpson Playhouse at least.

Another one off episode from the same writers, but in a format is Impasse, starring Bernard Cribbins for the BBC in 1963.

Another Thora Hird show, also for Yorkshire, is In Loving Memory, which ran for five series over 17 years. It was set in an undertaker’s, and was written by Dick Sharples (just like Hallelujah! from yesterday).

Interesting because Norman Lear took the address of his mega-hit All In The Family (a loose remake of Til Death Us Do Part), and had a new cast of characters move in. It didn’t go well, and was cancelled after only five episodes.

Not to be confused with the recent movie, Seven Year Hitch was a BBC sitcom from 1966, written by Fred Robinson. It was a one off in the Comedy Playhouse strand.

And talking of pilot serieses (not sure how to write the plural of series), and harking (geddit) back to yesterday, let’s not forget Seven Of One, with Ronnie Barker. As well as spawning Open All Hours and Porridge, Gerald Frow wrote My Old Man, Roy Clarke did another entry called Spanner’s Eleven, Hugh Leonard came up with Another Fine Mess, and Jack Goetz (actually Barker himself) wrote One Man’s Meat. And Clement & Le Frenais also wrote I’ll Fly You For A Quid, all about a missing betting slip.

]]>Sitcom Advent Calendar Door Sixhttp://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6731
Thu, 06 Dec 2018 11:26:39 +0000http://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6731Continue reading →]]>Today’s entry (and probably tomorrow’s too) is somewhat inevitable, given the way Ronnie Barker handled the sitcom pilot business. Six Dates With Barker was a series of one-offs, written by different people, most of which led to more things.

Six Dates was LWTs second run of pilots, and included a few familiar things. Opening up with The Removals Person, this was a very early pilot for what turned into Clarence.

Spike Millgan’s The Phantom Raspberry Blower Of Old London Town will be known to fans of The Two Ronnies, while The Odd Job later became a film, with Barker replaced by Graham Chapman.

Mark Lewishohn identifies the fifth episode Come In And Lie Down, written by John Cleese, as a prototype for Basil Fawlty.

LWT’s first run of shows was called The Ronnie Barker Playhouse, and the BBC later mangled the format somewhat with Seven Of One, completely missing the point of the originally planned six pilots.

This is a format that should be revisited more often. Using the star power of a popular performer to showcase new sitcoms, which can then later be reworked into full series. We all know Porridge and Open All Hours came out of this, but as the above shows, it wasn’t just those that developed.

Behind door five we find The 5 Mrs Buchanans (it’s going to be impossible to keep up with this number theming). This one ran for 17 episodes on CBS in 1994-5, was created by Jamie Wooten and Marc Cherry, and starred Eileen Heckart.

It was originally titled The Four Mrs Buchanans.

500 Bus Stops (at least there’s a five in there somewhere), was a John Shuttleworth vehicle, on BBC2 in 1997.

We’ll take a quick side-step into sketch comedy though, with Five Alive.

Made by TVS, in the late 80s, it stars Brian Conley and Doon Mackichan.

]]>Sitcom Advent Calendar Door Fourhttp://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6727
Tue, 04 Dec 2018 11:35:22 +0000http://www.simondunn.me.uk/?p=6727Continue reading →]]>There’s an absolutely delicious nugget waiting for us behind door four of the sitcom advent calendar today. Just have a look at this from the final episode of series four of The Brittas Empire.

That crane show showing the destruction of the leisure centre is absolutely astonishing.

Here’s a nice quirk of fate, nestling in some foil wrapping. There were two one off sitcoms, one called For Richer … For Poorer, the other called For Richer For Poorer.

The former starred Harry H Corbett and was written by Johnny Speight. It aired on the BBC in June of 1975. It was wiped. WIPED.

The latter followed on ITV six weeks later, and starred George Layton and Ian Ogilvy. It was written by Jon Watkins.

And as a bonus, we also get a glimpse of The Four Seasons, a CBS sitcom with Alan Alda, circa 1984. He also created the series, and wrote some of it too – developed from his own 1981 movie of the same name.